Eastland disaster more than history to Schaumburg man

Salvatore Pisano was baby when his father died in 1915 tragedy

Salvatore Pisano says his mother never talked about why she stayed behind with her infant son as his father boarded the SS Eastland docked along the Chicago River.

But over the years, Pisano has pieced together the story of his close brush with Chicago's worst disaster. His father, Martin Pisano, was among the 844 people who died when the Eastland capsized on July 24, 1915 -- 93 years ago Thursday.

"I was only 3 months old and I was supposedly being held by my mother," said Pisano, now 93 and a resident of the Friendship Village retirement community in Schaumburg. "She was on the dock, and I guess she was afraid of water."

Pisano was rebuffed by his mother, Mary, and other family members when he tried to get answers about what happened. But he has made it a personal mission to remember those who were killed, including his father.

"It's a story that was kept very quiet," said Pisano, who always wondered why, considering so many people died.

As a young man, he began collecting newspaper clippings and photographs of the disaster -- including photos that he bought for $10 at a flea market -- to try to piece the story together himself. And this week, at his request, members of the Eastland Disaster Historical Society discussed the tragedy at Friendship Village.

The ship was getting ready to shove off when it began to list and rolled to its port side with an estimated 2,500 people on board. The Eastland was to have taken Western Electric employees to a company picnic outing in Michigan City, Ind.

Pisano said he regrets he also never talked to his mother about what his father was like, or what he did at Western Electric. She died in 1988.

"I asked. We never discussed it," Pisano said. "It was kind of a dead subject."

A first-generation Italian immigrant, Mary Pisano and her son were supported after his father's death by her family in Chicago's Little Italy. She later remarried.Pisano remembers his years at home near Taylor Street and Western Avenue. He lived there until he married at the age of 25.

He was in his mid-20s when he became interested in uncovering the history of the Eastland, and he hosted a memorial service in 1940 at St. Callistus Catholic Church in Chicago, honoring his father and others lost in the disaster.

"I was trying to start something up to get people interested and bring it back to life," he said.